Kill or be Killed
by Stars of Gold
Summary: They know that this is a choice that is hard to make. It was kill or be killed, but neither wants to kill the other. It would hurt too much. InuKai


Based loosely off the Hunger Games, because a battle is a battle, even if they call it a 'game', and people participating in a battle are ruthless. **Hunger Games universe.

* * *

**

They know that this is a choice that is hard to make. It was kill or be killed, but neither wants to kill the other. It would hurt too much.

They distracted themselves from this earlier by killing the others. They fought together and covered for each other, but...

But eventually, the others had fallen, and now...

Now is the time to make a choice.

Kill...

...or be killed.

* * *

There is blood on Kaidoh's face as he presses a knife to Inui's neck.

"I don't want to do this, sempai," he says, his voice trembling slightly. "Please... don't make me do this."

Inui looks at him calmly. "You know that only one of us can survive, Kaidoh," he says, going to adjust glasses that aren't there anymore. "Try to make it quick. I don't fancy suffering."

"Why... Why do I have to kill you? Why don't you kill me instead?" Kaidoh demands, crazy with desperation.

Inui smiles. "You have a family, Kaidoh. They're waiting... waiting for you to come home. I... don't have that luxury."

Kaidoh shouts in frustration and throws the knife down on the ground. "I can't... I can't kill you, Inui-sempai!"

Inui walks about seven feet to the knife and takes it calmly. "They say it's kill or be killed in the arena," he says to Kaidoh, who is pacing now. "But there's a third option: both."

Kaidoh turns towards him, eyes wide as he understands perfectly what his sempai plans to do. "No, sempai, don't–"

But it's too late. Inui smiles serenely at Kaidoh, then plunges the knife into his abdomen.

"SEMPAI!" Kaidoh shouts. "No... no..." Kaidoh's body is frozen in place, but his mind tries to find something he can do to help his sempai. He knows that Inui probably stabbed something vital, and that a wound like that was something Kaidoh couldn't heal, not with nothing but the clothes on his back and a bloody knife.

With a little difficulty, Inui pulls the knife out and throws it away. Blood gushes out of the stab wound as the knife is pulled out, and Inui falls to the ground on his behind. "Well," he said, chuckling. "That was... a lot more painful than I expected."

Kaidoh forces his body to move, to go to Inui and make sure that, at the very least, his sempai, his partner, wouldn't die alone. He catches his sempai around the shoulders and lays him down slowly.

"Why did you do that, sempai?" Kaidoh whispers brokenly. "Why?"

Inui smiles and raises a hand to Kaidoh's cheek. "Because, Kaoru," he says, even as the blood gushes out of his wound. "I love you."

Kaidoh clenches Inui's hand tightly and rests his forehead on the Inui's. "I love you too, sempai," he whispers, broken and crying. "I love you too."

There is a silence, and then Inui laughs weakly. "It's strange; I always imagined this scene a little differently. It was supposed to be romantic and happy, not tragic. And it always ended with a kiss..." Inui sighs. "But really... it ends in death. My predictions... were wrong."

Kaidoh kisses him fiercely. "You won't die," he says firmly. "You can't."

Inui smiles, but it's faint and distant. "I can," he says. "I will. Don't let... the others... slack off."

Kaidoh shakes his head in denial. "You're not going to die," he whispers, but even to him it sounds pathetic, hopeless.

Inui doesn't answer, just closes his eyes. There is silence, and Kaidoh hugs his sempai closer, crying quietly.

"Ne, Kaoru," says Inui, and Kaidoh knows he is going soon. "Kiss me."

Kaidoh does, and even though he's crying, and Inui is bleeding, and neither of them are kissing the other very well, it's the best kiss either of them has ever had.

And just like that, while they are kissing and Kaidoh's eyes are closed, he feels Inui slip away.

He pulls away, hugs his sempai's lifeless body tightly, and he cries.

* * *

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Prince of Tennis or The Hunger Games.

Tell me how I did. I'm not usually a tragedy writer, but I didn't like how the Hunger Games' heroine, Katniss, gets to keep her second boyfriend. It's not _right_. That's not how these end. These battle royale things end with one grim, dirty, bloody survivor. ONE. Not TWO.

But anyway. If I get the motivation, I might flesh it out a bit. What do you think? Should I make it a full-length story or is this one part enough?

I know they're a bit OOC, but dude, Inui's dying. And Kaidoh's watching him die. Dude.

Also, when I say partner up there, it's because in this universe, tennis exists, and they used to be a doubles combination in between training for battle with the rest of the Seigaku regulars.


End file.
